Interesting books, and news items about books and periodicals, particularly with respect to political and social issues. (Note: In some versions of IE, the profile may appear at the bottom of the page with this template; I will look into it; Mozilla works fine.) Note: no one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Online flex texts may help college students reduce the cost of textbooks; maybe good for high school, especially in AP

The Washington Times has an interesting story on Wednesday, September 2 about textbook pricing, by Karen Goldberg Goff, “Digital texts could turn the page on rising book costs” (link here) for college students and sometimes in high school.

The article discusses an innovation called the flexbook, which is particularly useful in science and math, with a typical example here. The flexbook application presents the material in a variety of panels that helps the student focus on specific concepts and related equations.

It’s easy for me to imagine how this software could be used to present political science concepts, as in my own books.

E-book texts are still pricey, but about half the cost of printed texts.

Textbooks are heavy and expensive partly because of the strict editing requirements and the amount of detail (including illustrations) that they must contain. You physicians, remember your organic chemistry text as a junior in college? Even the lab text (describing all the preps) was humongous.

The flexbook concept assumes that the student will do more homework online. This might run counter to the desires of parents to control family online use, and is most appropriate for students with more maturity, as in AP courses for college credit while in high school; their use presumes a certain level of online maturity among the kids. Just look at the book reviewed in my last post to appreciate the potential concerns.

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About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

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